A Blade In The Dark
Directed By Lamberto Bava
Released: 1983
Starring Andrea Occhipinti, Anny Papa, Fabiola Toledo, and Michele Soavi
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment

Bruno (Andrea Occhipinti) is a composer working on a horror film score for director friend, Sandra (Anny Papa). Luckily, his friend, Tony (Michele Soavi), lets Bruno use his swank villa for the duration. Unluckily, there is a deranged killer stalking the grounds murdering women seemingly without motive. Unable to prove anything is going on due to some inexplicable foul play, Bruno decides to solve the mystery himself. He begins to suspect that his girlfriend Julia (Lara Naszinsky) of committing the murders. Many clues lead Bruno to Linda, the missing former tenant of the villa and just how does the unseen final reel of Sandra’s horror film tie in to the killings? And what’s with all the tennis balls?

If you can survive the awful movie-within-a-movie intro (featuring the most terribly dubbed actor of all time: Giovanni Frezza (House By The Cemetery)), then you’ll find that A Blade in the Dark is actually a decent and nicely filmed giallo. Lamberto Bava’s first giallo features some suspenseful moments but has a very weak script. Several bloody murders take place in the film keeping the modest pace going. Angela’s (Fabiola Toledo) murder in the bathroom is one of the most thoroughly twisted and violent killings in the genre. The soundtrack is very cool and creepy and the stalking scenes are tense.

Andrea Occhipinti (New York Ripper, Conquest) makes for a good leading man and he handles the ridiculous dialogue quite well. “And is it really possible you’re such a vacant nerd?” Lara Naszinsky (Aenigma) plays Julia, a character so bitchy that it boggles the imagination while Valeria Cavalli’s Katia character is simply too weird to live for very long. There is a small but very welcome role for Stanko Molnar (Macabre) as Giovanni, the seedy caretaker.

A Blade in the Dark or Desperately Seeking Linda? Either way this is some fun, bloody, and trashy stuff. Hopefully, an Italian print exists out there somewhere because the American dubbing is atrocious. Despite a lame coda and a paper-thin motivation for the killer, the film does have some high points. The whimpering and giggling killer is completely bonkers especially while dancing around with the body of a recently strangled victim. The house has a claustrophobic and isolated feel to it providing some punch to the scares. Thankfully, there are some frightening moments in the movie to lessen some of the shock and abject terror caused by the scariest aspect of A Blade in the Dark: the kitchen décor.